


Healing

by butyoumight



Series: Since the Ocean is Our Coffin [8]
Category: Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-23
Updated: 2011-07-23
Packaged: 2017-10-21 16:47:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/227405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/butyoumight/pseuds/butyoumight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>"I don't dream." Joe whimpered, and he felt pathetic, but he figured if he couldn't be pathetic in his dreams, confronted with the one thing that he could never admit he wanted most in the galaxy, well.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	Healing

**Author's Note:**

> Alternate Universe. Follows up my _[Shuffling Your Deck of Trick Cards](http://archiveofourown.org/series/8684)_ series.

He curled up on his side to protect the wound in his stomach, a ragged hole where someone had stabbed him, twisted the blade as they pulled it out. He couldn't remember who had done it, or why. All he could remember was the pain.

A warm hand touched his shoulder and he pulled his knees closer, clasped his hands over the wound, and made a pathetic sound that he'd be embarrassed about if he wasn't in so much _pain_.

"Joe."

That voice, it sent an electric shock down his spine, made him shudder. He turned his head, straining, squinting through a bloody haze. The white streaks in his black hair stood out, clawed their way into clarity until it was so obvious who was leaning over him, rolling him over onto his back, gentle hands brushing aside his own to judge the damage.

"Sid?"

Sid hummed softly, applying gentle pressure to the wound.

Joe swallowed, the taste of copper thick on his tongue, choking him. "Is this a dream?"

Sid looked up at his face, moved a hand to brush Joe's bangs away from his eyes. There was no blood on his hand. The pain was gone. Joe sat up. Sid smiled at him, but it was a sad expression, a hint of guilt playing around the corners of his eyes. "Yes."

Joe dropped his gaze, frowning. There wasn't even a hole in his shirt anymore. He was in uniform again, the stifling gray and black of Zangyack Special Forces. The wound was gone. "I'm not dead?"

Sid grabbed his arm, pulled him to his feet. Joe only barely stumbled as he regained his balance.

"Neither am I, Joe. You know that."

Joe didn't know how to respond to that, so he did the only thing that felt natural. He reached for Sid, grabbed his arms and pulled the older man to him, threw his arms around Sid and buried his face in the crook of his neck.

He couldn't cry. Some dream, where he could feel pain but he couldn't cry.

Sid shushed him anyway, slipping one arm supportively around Joe's waist, the other hand spreading over his back, rubbing gently. "It's okay, Joe. It's going to be alright."

"I don't dream." Joe whimpered, and he felt pathetic, but he figured if he couldn't be pathetic in his dreams, confronted with the one thing that he could never admit he wanted most in the galaxy, well.

"You do now. You're badly hurt, Joe."

"What happened?"

Sid pulled away, held Joe at arm's length and searched his face. "That I don't know. I'm just here to make sure you make it back."

"Do I have to?" Joe asked, looking down. Sid's hands were wrapped around his own. It felt so real.

Sid laughed, a soft little chuckle that made Joe feel like blushing, made him feel like a child again. And he had been a child, or nearly so, when he'd first met Sid. "You've replaced me, Joe. I'm honored that it took so many people to fill the void I left in you."

"Void?"

Sid lifted one hand, pushed Joe's hair aside again, tucking it gently behind his ear. The motion was familiar to Joe, but not coming from Sid.

 _Basco_.

Sid nodded, as if he could hear Joe's thoughts. He probably could, Joe thinks, knowing that this isn't really Sid, just a figment of his fevered imagination. Sid pressed a hand to Joe's chest, then picked up his necklace. Joe was sure it hadn't been there a moment before. It didn't fit with his uniform.

"Marvelous." Joe said softly, reaching to take the pendant from Sid's hand.

"And others." Sid nodded again, hooked an arm around the back of Joe's neck and pulled him against his chest. "Oh, Joe. I'm beginning to wonder if you'll ever manage to think of yourself first."

X

"Marvelous-san."

Marvelous turned to look over his shoulder. Ahim stood in the doorway, carrying a tea tray and looking positively poised. If he didn't know better, he wouldn't believe this was the same woman who had left his quarters an hour before, streaked in ash, blood and tears after caring for Joe.

He tried to smile, but it came off as more of a grimace.

"Come, Marvelous-san." She said softly, holding out the tray. "I will sit with him for a while."

Marvelous turned back to Joe. He was still so pale, the stark white of bandaging serving only to highlight the pallor of his skin. His breath was still too shallow, and Marvelous was beginning to be frightened that Joe might not ever wake up. He didn't seem inclined to.

"You cannot just sit in here staring at him all night, Marvelous-san. Please."

Marvelous sighed. She was right.

He gently lifted Joe's hand from the bed, pressed a careful kiss to bruised knuckles before placing it over Joe's heart. Then he stood, crossing to Ahim and taking the tray from her. She nodded, and passed him to take his place at the bedside.

"If he wakes up, you'll call me?"

"Of course, Marvelous-san."

Marvelous retreated into the hall and then paused. He wasn't sure where he was supposed to go, having given his own quarters over to Joe's convalescence, and having ordered Luka to stick Basco in Joe's room.

He looks down at the tray Ahim had brought him. A tea pot, _two_ cups, and, as if he'd requested it, his skeleton key. The only key that fit each lock in the Galleon, the same key he'd given to Luka when he told her to lock Basco in. To protect the ship and crew, certainly, but he'd known he was also doing it to protect Basco. Strange, how the universe could change so completely, so quickly.

Joe's quarters were the closest to his own. He balanced the tray carefully with his left hand, used his right to unlock the door. He slipped in, and made sure the door closed behind him.

Basco was sitting on the very edge of Joe's bed, his hands still tied in front of him. He looked up, frowned just a bit. "Did you come to your senses?"

Marvelous raised an eyebrow at Basco. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Basco shrugged. "Did you come to kill me?"

Marvelous stared at him for a moment, and then started laughing. It was a weak chuckle, pathetic and breathless and maybe a little hysterical, but it was laughter, and shortly Basco was laughing too, though his laughter seemed maybe a little less sane than Marvelous' own.

"I brought tea." Marvelous finally composes himself enough to say, holding up the tray as evidence. Basco's hands lifted to his face, fingertips brushing tears away.

"You've kind of lost it, Marvey-chan." He said, half-seriously, and Marvelous snorted.

"You want me to take it somewhere else?"

Basco shrugged again, folding his hands in his lap. "I don't care."

"I don't doubt that." Marvelous said, but he crossed the room anyway, setting the tray down on Joe's bedside table. He poured a cup for each of them, and moved to sit beside Basco, offering him one of the cups. Basco took it without question, holding it carefully with both hands and sipping from it gingerly.

They sat in a strangely companionable silence for a moment, sipping their tea and avoiding looking at one another. After everything that had happened, all the hate that each harbored towards the other, all of it was obsolete now. Only Joe mattered.

"Is he alright?" Basco asked softly after a moment.

Marvelous didn't turn to look at him, he was too busy looking around Joe's room. He realized he'd never really spent time in this room, not since it had been his own quarters so very long ago. He'd stopped in to retrieve Joe occasionally, and after they'd rescued Joe Marvelous had come in here once or twice to change his bandages, but for the most part everything happened elsewhere.

Joe's room was practically devoid of any defining features, any decoration that identified it as his. He didn't collect small treasures as Luka did, he didn't have stacks of books like Don. He didn't cling, almost greedily to any small reminders, any piece of art or article of clothing from his past as Ahim did. There had even been a sixth room that Marvelous had allowed Gai to claim as his own (and he'd certainly wondered if maybe AkaRed had known about there being a sixth all along), and having peeked in once or twice Marvelous had discovered he'd covered the walls with pictures and posters of previous Sentai teams.

Joe had nearly nothing. The quarters might as well be empty for all the life they showed. The only indication that anyone lived in this room at all was the clothing in the closet, and the nail Joe had driven into the wall near the door to hang his sword belt on, though it had been some time since he'd worn a sword that way.

"Marvey-chan?" Basco said quietly, and now Marvelous looked at him, blinking slowly as he pulled himself out of his thoughts.

"Huh?"

Basco smirked slightly, but the expression fell away almost immediately into one of worry. "Is he alright?" He repeated himself.

"I don't know." Marvelous answered, looking into his tea. "He's not awake yet. But he's alive."

Basco heaved a sigh of slightest relief, and Marvelous sipped at his tea as he went back to looking at the room, searching for any indication that the room actually _belonged_ to his first mate, but he knew now there was none to be found.

"He still lives like a soldier." Basco said, and Marvelous turned to stare at his rival for a long moment. Basco was looking around the room too, and coming to the exact same conclusions as Marvelous had. It was unnerving.

"You noticed that too, huh?"

X

They were in a bed, now. It was familiar to Joe: the bed, the room, and the arms around him. Sid's quarters on the barracks ship where they'd first met. Bleak and gray, all metal and military issue, but the warmth of Sid beside him had made it feel like home, or as close to home as Joe had, at the time, figured he was ever going to get again.

"This was never home, Joe. Not for us."

Sid's doing it again, reading his thoughts and answering them as if he'd said them out loud.

"I know. I know that now."

"Do you?" Sid pressed, shifting and pushing Joe onto his back, lying beside him with a hand over his stomach. The wound had come back, only now it was just a scar, a nasty evil scar. Joe wished he knew where it had come from, who had done this to him.

"You have a home, Joe. I think it's time you go back."

Joe frowned, put a hand over Sid's, gripping, clawing at his wrist. "What about you?"

Sid smiled, brushed Joe's hair out of his face. "If anyone could save me, I have no doubt it would be you. But try to think about yourself once in a while."

"I don't want to go." Tears filled Joe's eyes, he reached for Sid but Sid pushed him gently back. "I don't want to lose you again."

"You aren't, Joe. Don't be silly. I'm not real, remember? Just a dream."

"No."

Sid's fingers brushed against Joe's cheeks, brushed tears and blood and ash away, stroked his forehead and tucked his hair back from his face, leaned forward to press a cold kiss to his lips. "Just sleep, Joe. Go back to them."

Joe closed his eyes.

X

" _Sid_..."

"Joe-san!" Someone was sitting beside him, but Joe couldn't bring himself to open his eyes. He knew he wasn't dreaming anymore. He'd thought the pain in the dream was bad, this was nearly unbearable.

The sound of a chair pushing across the floor, footsteps running. "Ahim-san!"

Joe now recognizes the voice as Gai, and he manages to squint his eyes open, thankfully finding the room dim.

"He's awake! Marvelous-san!"

Joe slowly sat up. Bandages tugged and strained all up and down his right side, made him feel unbalanced. His head was pounding, and everything seemed kind of unfocused as he looked around the room, pieced together that he was in Marvelous' quarters.

"Everyone! He's awake!"


End file.
